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Rio Olympics 2016: Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna out of Doubles Game (Tennis)

Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna had their first round match against Poland’s Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski. But the Indian duo failed to get any momentum going and crashed out 4-6, 6-7.

The oft-feuding teammates started the match brightly, going up a break for a 3-2 lead in the first set. Although they were broken back immediately, they again went on the attack for another break lead, this time serving at 4-3. That was to be the last game they would win in the set though, as Matkowski and Kubot seemed to have woken up.

They broke the Indian duo twice in succession – thrice in total during the set – to take the opener 6-4. All the momentum was with them now, and Paes’ hopes of putting up a grandstand showing in his record 7th Olympic appearance seemed to be hanging by a thread.

The second set was a lot more sedate, with each pair holding comfortably until the 5-5 mark. It was then that the Indians made their move, ambushing the Poles to set up a break point, which they duly converted.

The set was in their hands now, and all they needed to do was hold serve to level the match. But Kubot and Matkowski were having none of it, as they immediately went up three break points, before sealing the break with some brilliant play.In the tiebreaker Paes and Bopanna were on the backfoot right from the start, conceding a mini-break early to give the Poles a 3-1 lead. But the Indians fought back to make it 4-4, and then saved a match point at 5-6 to level the breaker.

That was the last point they would win though, as the Poles won two points in succession to take the set, and with it the match.

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